For teh scientifically minded...

A few days ago my elder brother sent me some links to a paper he's co-authored on self-stable bicycles.

It's only just occurred to me that it's likely people round here would have an interest. So here are the links to “A bicycle can be stable without gyroscopic or caster effects” by Kooijman, Meijaard, Papadopoulos, Ruina, Schwab.

The paper, the online appendix, videos, and the companion historical study are at:

http://bicycle.tudelft.nl/stablebicycle/   

Both online and print media have picked up on it.

SCIENCE NEWS

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/72819/title/How_bicycles...

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=self-stable-bike

SCIENCE

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/04/how-to-keep-a-riderle...

Science article abstract:

A Bicycle Can Be Self-Stable Without Gyroscopic or Caster Effects

BBC interview of Andy Ruina

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00fwm7k/Science_In_Action_14_...

A salient excerpt from the ScienceMag article:

So what does keep the bicycle from falling over? The trick is its odd mass distribution: low in front and high in the rear. As a result, the front will try to fall faster than the rear, just as a short pencil topples faster than a tall broomstick. Because front and rear are connected, this lopsided falling makes the front steer into the fall and in doing so pulls the bike out of it.